Pope Celestine V

Today, western Christianity is comprised of a myriad of denominations largely born out of the Protestant Reformation that took place in 16th century Europe. Spearheaded by German scholar, Martin Luther, the Reformation began in an effort to reform corruption within the Catholic Church and soon spiraled into a religious revolution. Social and economic strife as well as vast advances in literacy and a growing sense of nationalism cultivated European life to be a breeding ground for dissent.…

he helped end the Great Schism in Western Europe, in which two rival popes, one in Avignon and the other in Rome, disputed their claims to the papacy in Rome. Alonso was rewarded as the Bishop of Valencia, and was later made into a cardinal. Surprisingly, he led a strict pious and virtuous life,…

According to Roberts, the sixteenth century between 1614 and 1651 emerged as the most hostile period for Christian believers. The rules and regulations set by the Shogunate feudal government resulted into the abolishment of Christian faith practice and spread (Roberts 271). The system started by the Tokugawa Hidetada who ordered the expulsion, deportation, and execution of all catechists, missionaries, seminaries, and any other person who refused to refute their Christian faith. In the Diplomacy…

According to Tiffany Vann Sprecher, James of Vitry (c. 1160-1240) student of Peter de Chanter, was an Augustinian canon whose written legacy includes a Vita of the famous beguine Mary of Oignies and nearly 450 model sermons for preachers to deliver as written or to use as inspiration in writing their own sermons. “The remission of sins and the reward of eternal life” was one of the sermons pictured of Urban preaching by James of Vitry appeals to the nobles’ hope for remission of sins and…

The farther back one’s goes in history the murkier beginnings and endings get. Beginnings and ending in this case are time periods, or more specifically the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Part of this is due to the slow spread across Europe in the time long before Internet and phones. Another reason is the natural progression from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. It makes sense that all of the humanism in the Renaissance would morph into using the full spectrum of human talent and…

In this time we see a mixing of tolerance and intolerance, almost like a game of tug-o-war, where everyone seems to be claiming they know the path Christianity is supposed to follow. Just a little before this, Martin Luther made a prevalent impact of Christian society going against the Catholic Church and we reside in it’s wake. Luther fought hard for what he believed and had many oppose him for it, however it’s now after he is gone that someone begins to rival him. Jean Calvin, a calculating…

People of the Middle Ages were illiterate of the plague and its behaviours, such a contagion affected civilisations with unprecedented and immeasurable repercussions. A once inequitable economy bound to the obligations of the existing hierarchy, became distraught allowing social stratification mobility. Consequently, the feudal system lost its influential powers and soon entered its demise. With uncontrollable chaos that ravaged cities people turned to the Church for aid, though such calamity…

In feudal Europe, the Catholic Church created hegemony by using excommunication to establish political control over the kings of Europe. At the end of the 10th century, Pope Gregory V condemned King Robert II of France for marrying his first cousin. Incest was considered a sin by the Catholic Church; therefore the pope did not approve. After the threat of excommunication, Robert “obeyed and married another, and his obedience affirmed Gregory’s authority.” This demonstrated how the Catholic…

While the Catholic Reformation technically started before the Protestant Reformation, the onset of Protestantism gave it a new character. Before, the church was reforming due to inner necessities, but now the church had actual issues to respond to from the Protestants (Gonzalez, Vol. 2, pg. 138). The three types of the reformation were spiritual, administrative, and doctrinal. The spiritual type included the developmentive new orders. There were the Capuchin Franciscan monastics. They were…

art, law, and religion that thrive today. Extending the Roman frontier proved to bring more conflict than it did solace, as minds of the east and west began to form conflicting Christian beliefs. The west stood rigid on the Catholic use of dominant Popes,…